John Curall-Virtual Reality

I found the article about virtual reality quite interesting. I have always been fascinated with the potential of VR for creating new forms of art as well as creating somewhere that feels "real" yet exists separate from the painful realities of the real world. I especially like the artists who were taking about their own experiments with VR and what kinds of messages they try to explore with those experiments. I found the more political elements of this article a little disturbing. First, I believe that when you observe any genre with a particular bias you are going to find evidence to support that bias. I think it is unfair to say that an entire genre is a certain way and should be changed to fit your political agenda. I think whatever elements that support these points of view that exist in the genre have less to do with some grand conspiracy of pushing a certain view of the world than they do with the monetary factors that create certain products that conform to those standards. What do I know though. I'm a man and in their opinion these support my world view. I think we spend a lot of time in our culture blaming outside factors instead of looking within. We seem to have the wrong focus. Many spend a lot of time criticizing and blaming behavior or viewpoints on media elements. That approach tends to go no where as very few people in our society are even going to pay attention to some article you wrote complaining about a genre. Not everyone is required to think about and blog about these kind of readings for a class. If we took all that energy and focused on ourselves and our families through education, we wouldn't have to worry about what is getting "reinforced" we would be able to think for ourselves. I believe that the two most powerful forces for change in this world are education and art. It is through these that we can expand our way of thinking and recognize the influences that are all around us. In my opinion that does a lot more than writing articles blaming a genre for its shortcomings and insisting that an entire genre be changed to meet with your political view point. There should be room in a genre to create things of all view points. If you do not like the prevailing view point of a drama so much, create your own work in that genre that shows a different one. That's what art is all about, making you think not pointing fingers and doing nothing.